The Murder of Jean Townsend, (born c. 1933) is an unsolved murder case from Ruislip, in the county of Middlesex, England. Townsend was a 21-year-old English woman who was murdered in September 1954. Despite an extensive police investigation, no one has ever been charged with her murder and the case remains unsolved. Townsend was a theatrical costumier, who was returning to Ruislip from the West End of London. She was found strangulated with her own scarf. The autopsy revealed no signs of sexual assault. There were suspicions that the murder was connected to American servicemen based at the nearby South Ruislip Air Station. Investigators found possible connections with recent cases of harassment of women and attacks on women in the area, and perceived similarities with unsolved murders of women in West Germany. A possibility that the then-recent murder of another woman in London was connected to Townsend's case has been raised. Townsend's murder was also subsequently connected to an attack on another woman, and with the 1957 murder of a young mother. Both these cases occurred at a distance of a few miles from the location where Townsend was killed. In 1971, an unsolved murder took place near South Ruislip, using the same murder method with Townsend's murder. Press reports of the time pointed out the similarities. In 2005, a family friend of the Townsends applied for access to the police case files under the Freedom of Information Act. The request was denied, and a decision was made to withhold the files from public inspection until 2031. The request brought new publicity to the cold case. At the time, a new theory was publicized, implicating an expatriate Italian nobleman in the murder. The authorities dismissed this theory due to lack of evidence. Murder Jean Mary Townsend lived with her parents at the family home in Bempton Drive, South Ruislip and worked as a theatrical costumier in the West End of London. On the evening of 14 September 1954, she attended a social function in the West End, returning to South Ruislip later that night on the last Central line train. At around 11:45 pm she was seen leaving South Ruislip station and walking alone along Victoria Road. Her body was discovered the following morning on the waste ground to the north side of Victoria Road, near the junction with Angus Drive in the area now occupied by St Gregory the